5 comments about How to Keep Kosher: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Jewish Dietary Laws.

1. I am finding How to Keep Kosher a valuable tool to explain and de-mystify the how tos and whys of keeping kosher. This book is a must read for a Jew by choice, or a Jew wanting to live a more kosher life.
   Lise Stern explains the process of kashering a kitchen, something which may seem very over whelming. I appreciate that she acknowledges how work intensive the kashering process can be, but as she explains the reasons for keeping kosher, it becomes more achieveable and worthwhile.



2. This is an excellent work on the Kashrut or the rules of how to eat. The basic rules require that no forbidden meat, fowl or fish be consumed. Milk and meat may not be consumed together and no
   non-Kosher meat may be consumed. Major Kosher organizations are
   Star K, Kashrus Labs, The Orthodox Union and K of K Supervision.
   Orthodox Jews eat only in Kosher restaurants or homes. The Talmud guards against forbidden fat (cheleu) or blood of mammals or birds.
   Sample Kosher foods are pasta, salsa, jam, cakes, cereal,
   cheese of France/Israel, Kiddush wines and fair Merlot. The
   Integrated Marketing Communications tracks Kosher foods.
   Orthodox Jews have debated the acceptability of microwave ovens
   for use in food preparation. A plethora of meal plans is provided for ease of reference. The work is well worth the money for
   food enthusiasts-all over the world. Every fine restaurant should be cognizant of the details of the Stern work.



3. A useful introduction to keeping kosher, and to the differences not only between Orthodox Jews and more liberal denominations, but even between stricter and more lenient Orthodox views- although as the author repeatedly points out, there is no substitute for consulting the rabbi of your choice on details.



4. This book is a clear, informative, comprehensive, and flexible guide for creating a kosher life. With this in hand, you can make decisions that fit your own inclinations toward keeping kosher, to whatever extent you might wish to. The book explains all the basic elements and offers a comparison among several branches of Judaism. It is not a rabbinic text, but a practical and useful one which also recommends consultation with one's rabbi of choice. It also provides some information on the food rituals of Succot, Passover, Chanukah, Shabbat, and High Holy Days.
   
   In the back of the book is a helpful glossary, a selection of recipes, some tied to holidays, and a number of very useful web resources. Depending on your interest and commitment, this may not be the only book on the subject you will ever want, but it's a great introduction or refresher course, and will come in very handy.



5. Great book. Till now I never got a proper explanation about what is kosher and what is not. Easy to understand and helped me a lot to understand its principles.

5 comments about My Most Favorite Dessert Company Cookbook: Delicious Pareve Baking Recipes.

1. I've never done this before, but had to pipe in to defend this book-- every recipe I've tried from it has come out delicious the first time; I'm truly shocked to see that they didn't work for other people, as I'm no baker. The double-chocolate cookies and the biscotti recipes are now standards in my house.



2. I also felt the need to chime in here. I LOVE this cookbook. Everything comes out perfect and delicious (except the chocolate ganache which was quite a mess). My guests actually recognized Doris' Blackout Cake and said it tasted exactly like the one at the restaurant. The double chocolate chip cookies are incredible. The entire "pie and tart" section is wonderful. And I think the basic vanilla and chocolate cakes are perfect and delicious. This is one of my favorite dessert cookbooks and my "go to" book whenever I need an impressive dessert.



3. I applaud Ms Schechter for writing this cookbook. The restaurant, My Most Favorite Dessert, is a hugely popular destination. MOst of the recipes are decent. I especially like the Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies. I made them for a friend we went to for Shabbat. Like anything else, ther are some great recipes in here and some not-so-great recipes. For a truly great cookbook, try Marcy Goldman's Jewish Holiday Baking.



4. I have recently had to cut diary products from my diet for health reasons. Being a dessert fanatic made this very difficult until I got this book. I have made several recipes including the traditional apple pie and brownies. Everyone who has tasted them thought they were outstanding. It is great that the recipies use all parave products such a margarine and soy milk, it allows us lactose intollerant people to enjoy desserts again!!!



5. THESE RECIPES ARE OK BUT SUSIE FISHBEIN IS FOOL-PROOF. ESPECIALLY KOSHER PALETTE WHICH SHE EDITED BUT DIDN'T WRITE!

5 comments about Jeff Nathan's Family Suppers: More Than 125 Simple Kosher Recipes.

1. I loved the first book and gave some as gifts to my friends. They are still thanking me a year later. So I just brought the new cookbook and plan to buy some more as gifts. It is the perfect Gift.



2. What a great book! It is no surprise that his book is as good as his television show.



3. At the beginning of the school year, I promised myself that I would cook up some new, and delcious recipes for the kids and my husband. I picked up a few new cookbooks and started looking at the recipes printed in the newspaper for fresh ideas. I am so happy that I made that promise, because dinners at my house have been wonderful. I find that "Family Suppers" is an easy book to follow the recipes in. I have most of the ingredients in the pantry or fridge already. Not too much hassle at all! My morning routine is now to pick up "Family Suppers" and figure out the next new recipe to prepare.



4. Thanks for another fabulous cookbook! I bought your first one & loved trying the diverse array of recipes. Everything came out so delicious! I look forward to doing the same with your second book. I tried my first dish last night - the cornflake crusted sea bass with salsa. I have already loved cornflake crusted chicken and was pleasantly surprised it came out so yummy with the sea bass. The corn and black bean salsa was a nice compliment to the dish. I love how you blend ingredients together to give food such wonderful flavors. Keep it up! Looking forward to Beef Stew Provencal this weekend!



5. This book is excellent. This book is easier than his previous cook book ("Adventures in Jewish Cooking") but the results are equally as good. We've tried the meatloaf and the Korean Barbeque thus far, and they have been really, really good to eat.
   
   Can't wait for him to write another book!

5 comments about The Foods of Israel Today.

1. When I came back from my first trip to Israel, I knew I had to have a cookbook that reflected all the smells and the tastes of Israel. I have always loved Joan Nathan's cookbooks. Her books are chockfull of great information and personal comments, not to mention incredibly delicious recipes! In The Foods of Israel there is a great assortment of recipes reflecting the different cultures that have influenced Israeli cuisine. There are recipes for such standard fare as hummus and fellafel and recipes that are pleasing to the palate using such herbs and spices as cumin, papkria, and cinnamin. Some of the recipes call for sumac, but since I have no idea what that is, I just left it out. Some of the ingredient lists are long, but most of the ingredients are easily obtainable, if one does not have them on hand. Some of the recipes are somewhat involved, but are well worth the effort. As with all recipes, it is important to read all the way through since some require marinating overnight. The writing of the recipes is simple and easy to follow. The table of contents and the index is helpful to the reader. I also loved the illustrations. By now you will have realized that I highly recommend this book!



2. I love Joan Nathan to begin with. Her recipes are always easy to follow and don't call for a million items that you have to search for in speciality stores. This book is like reading a novel. I have several of her books and love when she explains where and how the foods came into being. I would highly recommend it.



3. I have been to Israel in the past year and I came back enjoying the food. This is a great book and very authentic! If you have never been, this is about as close as you will get.



4. When I returned from a trip to Israel, I went looking for a cookbook that presented authentic Israeli recipes to duplicate the tastes I had found on my trip. This book fills the bill. Joan Nathan always does a wonderful job of presenting Jewish recipes and cooking history; she is an author one can trust for authenticity. "Foods of Israel" not only contains excellent, well-researched recipes, but Ms. Nathan's commentary on the food, its presentation, its history, etc. make for wonderful reading. I tend to use cookbooks as reading matter rather than simply as directions; this book fulfills both needs superbly.



5. Foods of Israel Today is a fantastic book. My husband and chef did not want to return the library's copy. I told him we could buy it from you. That was a wise decision. He has made the Israeli moussaca and the bosnian fish stew. I highly reccomend this book.

No comments about A Pied Noir Cookbook: French Sephardic Cuisine From Algeria (Hippocrene Cookbook Library).

3 comments about Sephardic Israeli Cuisine: A Mediterranean Mosaic.

1. Over a hundred kosher recipes celebrate Israeli cuisine, using typical Sephardic/Mid East ingredients from cinnamon to orange flower water and adding spice to favorites such as Crescent Olive Puffs and Libyan Mafrum, a meat and potatoes spicy dish. No photos, but most of these delicious dishes simply don't need illustration.



2. If you've been cooking Mama's Eastern-European recipes long enough, and you want your meals to turn over a new, more Sephardic leaf, in step with Israeli-style cooking, Sheilah Kaufman's cookbook Sephardic Israeli Cuisine: A Mediterranean Mosaic is for you.
   
   Start changing your cooking by changing your ingredients. Put aside the potatoes and the cabbage in favor of eggplant and artichokes. Forget the wheat and barley and go for rice and couscous. Leave the apples and pears on the shelf and choose the melons and apricots. Now that you have a lot of ingredients that you have no idea what to do with, reach for Sephardic Israeli Cuisine: A Mediterranean Mosaic .
   
   To follow these authentic recipes you will have to stock up on some new-to-the-Polish-palate, spices. The section on Condiments and Spices will guide you right through the Middle Eastern spice market. I doubt that any of us will actually bother to make the spices when they are so readily availalbe in any Israeli market. But in this section you will learn what Zatar and Zhoug (and many other spices) are really made of.
   
   In my eternal search for easy-to-make appetizers that taste good even when prepared several days before serving, this cookbook offers Leah Spiegel's recipe for Walnut Dip. Combine all the easy to find ingredients into a food processor, zumm, and store it in the frig. Alas! My kind of recipe.
   
   Here are the recipes for the well known but Gd-know-what's-in -`em dishes like Mafrum. This exotic sounding Lybian dish turns out to be beef stew. What's special about Morroccan Cholent? In addition to all the unique spicing that Bubi never dreamed of, Moroccans make their Cholent with honey. Yes, honey.
   
   We all know about the eggs that brown in the Cholent over night. Huevos Haminados is another Shabbat dish that Sephardi Yerushalmim and Turkish Jews make, that gives you the brown eggs but without the Cholent.
   
   Your Polish taste buds may be adjusting to Sephardic and Middle Eastern foods slowly, but everybody loves those great Sephardic and Middle Eastern desserts. No matter where you are from, you will delight in those bite-size syrupy sweet and often crunchy specialties like Baklava. Kaufman offers a recipe for preparing Baklava by the sheet that you later cut into individual pieces. I was more intrigued by the recipe from Lybia for sweet roses called Debla, which is popular on Purim. These beautiful individual edible rose-shaped sweets are made of dough that is wound around into a rose-like shape and covered in sugar syrup. They look just like flowers covered in morning dew, and must be gorgeous in mishloach manot.
   
   This cookbook has an excellent section on Sephardic Passover recipes. This Pesach, in addition to your traditional haroset you can prepare the Haroset from Turkey - also made with apples, nuts and wine, but with the addition of dates and raisins. Or you can make the Abravanel family haroset recipe originating in Portugal. In addition to the nuts and the wine, this recipe has - you won't believe it - orange juice and cherry jam. I liked the Passover recipe for sponge cake, which has a lot of eggs but no oil, so much for kitniyot issues.
   
   The cookbook ends with a small section on Ashkenazi foods. I am not sure why this was necessary. From my point of view the book held its own with just the Sephardic recipes.
   
   In addition to all the great recipes the cookbook has a section on the history of Sephardic Jews and an essay on the foods traditionally eaten on the Jewish holidays.
   
   The books opens with a translation of the Bendigamos, the Grace After Meals according to the tradition of the Spanish Portuguese Jews. It would have been nice had the Ladino text appeared alongside the English translation.
   
   Sephardic Israeli Cuisine: A Mediterranean Mosaic is a fine addition to your cookbook collection. You'll enjoy preparing these unique recipes and incorporating them into your standard repertoire.



3. Slightly exotic while at the same time being good for you. Easy to prepare with simple to understand directions. And most of all, delicious! What more could you ask? Take it from a mensch who likes to eat; this is a terrific cookbook with some wonderful recipes and excellent ideas!

5 comments about The Bialy Eaters.

1. I grew up on Grand Street near Kossar's bialy bakery, and Ms. Sheraton comes close to making me taste those delicious breads once again. Her language is descriptive about food in much the same way that a good novelist makes you see something common differently through deft imagery. Unless you are a major nitpicker, you'll enjoy this gentle, respectful, and fun book. And if you haven't tasted a genuine bialy, on your next trip to NYC please do take a sidetrip to Grand and Essex and pick up a bag--onion, not garlic, for reasons the author addresses--fresh and warm out of the oven. In a world of mass-produced blandness, I can see why Ms. Sheraton wrote this book, seeking the secret behind something unique.



2. Sheraton comes out with two statements that are on the surface contradictory: the best bialys (and the customs used to eat them) were from Bialystok, but the bialys she most enjoys are from the places she is most familiar (ie, Kossar's). For instance, even though every Bialystoker she encounters states that you absolutely do not split the roll open, she states that she still continues to do this because she finds it awkward not to. Fair enough. However, other variations of the bialy, such as the amount of onion used and the generosity of poppy seeds on top, she seems to feel are intolerable. And that's fine, too, because what she is really saying- and what just about everyone she interviews is saying- is that the bialy you love best is the bialy you grew up with. When all is said and done, it isn't about the specific recipe or food as much as it is about the past. The food you grew up with is one of the strongest links to your past. This is what Sheraton is really writing about; when the Bialystokers talk about how much they miss the bialy they grew up with and how inferior the modern versions are, what they are really mourning is the loss of the home they lived in. That the exact method of producing the bialy has been lost is just one more testament to the world that was destroyed in the Holocaust.

   My mother went to visit my sister in New York recently, and I asked her to bring back some bialys. Surely the bialys in New York would be better than the bialys I eat here in Boston. Not even close. My bialy has definite merits over its New York counterpart (abundant onions and poppyseeds, huge and fat, not flat), but it wasn't simply that. My bialys are the ones I've grown accustomed to eating and remind me of the neighborhood I buy them in and the people I eat them with. I cannot imagine losing all of that, and every passage of this book that spoke about those losses brought tears to my eyes.

   Read this book and fall in love with an old bread and a lost world.




3. Mimi Sheraton's work about a special bread and the people who made it echoes her subject matter. The Bialy eaters is itself moist, crusty, sensual, and characterized by a depressed hole in its centers. The hole is not due to any shoddiness in Ms. Sheraton's craft; it is the loss of some 60,000 beautiful soles and their rich culture that is the underpainting of her fine portrait of a special bread.

   Her doomed but dogged pilgrimage back to Bialystok, the source of the Bialy, is commendable for its integrity. Reading true, it involves a tale sadly too familiar for many of her readers, myself included. But it was her descriptions of bialies and pletzels, which I remember from my childhood in Baltimore, still warm from the baker's oven, that were the source of my lost night's sleep. I salivated and ruminated over the tastes and smells of my past. Sheraton shows shows how food is more than calories and carbs and taste and smell; it is also culture and history, art and, at its very best, a poetic expression of love. I can't wait to try the recipe.




4. There were a few things I really enjoyed about this book, as I found it both educational and enlightening when it discussed the various Jewish communities around the world, particularly in France and Argentina, as well as how completely devoid of Jews Bialystok has become. Her discussions about food and how they can trigger such powerful childhood memories were also insightful and thought provoking. However, the real jewels of this book were the conversations and letters with ex-Bialystokers, some of which could bring you to tears. Their memories of what once was bring home just how much was lost by the destruction of Jewish Eastern Europe by the Nazis and completed by the Communists, on a very personal, individual basis.
   
   Now for the problems. As someone else mentioned, Sheraton did not visit any overseas locations until an expenses paid business trip provided her with the opportunity. I didn't find this so unusual, as traveling the world can be quite expensive. However, I found her not traveling to Australia since no one would pay for it to be more than a little strange, considering she was doing research for a book like this. However, it made for a better read in the end, as she spared us what I found were her often times tedious descriptions and asides of the places she visited and people she met. There were also paragraphs where she would be talking about one thing one minute, such as quoting one of her respondents and then abruptly change the subject, which oftentimes made for a jarring read. While her style of writing may work in magazine articles, it often failed to keep my attention and it was often marred by some awkward sentence structure, especially in her attempts at flowery prose.
   
   Lastly, since the decision was made to include pictures in the book, I could have done with less description and more visuals, especially when it came to taking pictures of modern day Bialystok, as well as other cities and people she met and visited. And the pictures she did take, such as that of Bialys, were poorly taken, with no actual close-ups of the food itself, which there really should have been more of.
   
   So while The Bialy Eaters may be an interesting and often educational personal exploration of a wonderful food (I'm particularly obsessed with Kossars' bialys) and a world that no longer exists, I expected so much more. But what is there is certainly worth reading, especially if you've ever eaten and loved a bialy.



5. We purchased this book because my daughter is doing a history project about bialys. This is a well-written book on a unique subject--a resource I certainly did not expect to find when we started searching for information. I enjoyed Sheraton's journey in search of the history of the bialy, as well as the "perfect" bialy.

4 comments about The Secret of Challah.

1. The secrets shared in this book are thrilling. Bread making, especially special bread making just got to be very easy. After the new floor is laid in the front room, I will try making some challah. My mother is 95 and for the past few years has been making challah for us for services here in our home. She just upped and volunteered after having not baked any challah for perhaps 80 years. Wow!!
   
   Robert (Rabbi by draft)



2. First the good news:
   The information in this book is excellent. The author does a good job describing the cultural and religious importance of challah along with various rituals, customs, and prayers associated with the bread. This information is worth the price of the book if you really want to learn a lot about the importance and uses of challah.
   
   Bad News:
   The recipes are not reliable. First, 15 cups of whole wheat flour with out any added white flour (for the Whole Wheat Challah recipe) does not yield a 'light, airy' challah. Other recipes only call for 1 hour and 40 minutes TOTAL rising time (between the first and second rises). Generally bread that rises that fast has a rather insipid taste. Furthermore, for bakers interested in accurate, consitent results, it would have been helpful for the author to include the weight of the ingredients instead of just the volume. There is a lot of room for inaccurate results when you are measuring out 15 cups of flour.
   
   Summary:
   Good info, bad recipes. Maggie Glezer's a Blessing of Bread has many reliable, delicious challah recipes for novice and advanced bakers alike. If you are new to challah-making (or bread-making in general), it would be a good idea to invest in a book with more reliable recipes so you can experience success in the kitchen.



3. I love this book! The book has a wealth of information, a lovely format, and the recipes are wonderful. Among the information it contains are the laws and reasons for separating challah (as well as extra traditional blessings), a section on braiding challah and various traditional (and some not so common) shapes and the reasons behind them, etc. etc. etc. I've tried several different ones to rave reviews from family and friends. I have the original Hebrew version, but have given the English version as gifts for brides, friends, etc. I warmly recommend it.



4. This book is an excellent resource for those who want to learn more about the mitzvah of making challah. The layout and content are easy to follow. The recipes are diverse in terms of sweet and fluffy vs. dense and healthy. The book is useful for new challah bakers as well as those more seasoned.

5 comments about Levana's Table: Kosher Cooking for Everyone.

1. I bought Levana's book after attending her cooking classes in New York City (http://www.levanakirschenbaum.com). This book is a great companion for her classes -- I recommend them both highly! Her Brisket makes a great seder main course.



2. During a summer picnic someone advised me to buy Levana's cookbook. Since I bought this cookbook I don't look anymore at others. I also follow her cooking classes at Lincoln Square Synagogue and they are too good to be true. She makes healthy dishes which are very easy to make and simply delicious as well. I was always a bit insecure about cooking since often recipes didn't turn out like they should. Not with levana's recipes; they work. It really makes me happy to see that my dishes turn out so well. Levana uses all kinds of healthy grains, I never heard of before, gives alternatives to white cane sugar, gives easy recipes to make fish and chicken exotic in no time, turns heavy dairy dishes into light soy creations and uses vegetables, spices and herbs in such a magical way that even the greatest carnivore would consider to become a vegetarian.
   I am waiting for her new cookbook.



3. I have to say that this book has to be one of the top kosher cookbooks. So far I only tried one recipe, which happened to be marinated steak for the grill, which was unbelievable. My guests could not stop raving about it. I imagine that most of the other recipes should follow suit. I noticed a trend with her recipes, to include green peppercorns and/or saffron. Green peppercorns, could be found at most gourmet shops, but when she calls for green peppercorns in brine, I have yet to see where that exists. I'm sure it's out there somewhere, but she doesn't elaborate on it. Levana is a fan of tofu, as she explains in the book, book I can't comment if those recipes are good (even though I speculate that they are). I bought all of the ingredients for her non-dairy Tiramisu, but I didn't have time to make it. Her book is fun to read, and you can't help be excited to try her next recipe.



4. This book of enticing recipes and gorgeous photos is a perfect gift for your favorite hostess. Levana is a master chef who is passionate about her work, and it shows. Her elegance and attention to detail are illustrated throughout Levana's Table. In addition to a collection of great recipes, Levana takes you inside her world of presentation and entertaining. She offers thoughtful tips and advice throughout.
   
   The target audience for Levana's Table is Kosher, yet Levana herself follows a mostly dairy-free diet, as evidenced in this book. Only a handful of the 150+ recipes contain any milk products, while several inviting dairy-free options, including a Tiramisu, are offered.
   
   One thing I truly enjoyed about this cookbook was the adventurousness. Levana's recipes touch every portion of the globe. Chili Sans Carne highlights a famous Latin dish, Lamb and Eggplant Curry demonstrates an excellent use of Indian spices, and a jazzed up Miso Soup (with Shiitakes and Swiss Chard) offers some new flavors to one of my old favorites.
   
   Several of the recipes call for more extravagant ingredients, so this may not be my daily go-to cookbook. Nonetheless, the instructions are uncomplicated and easy to follow. When guests are coming, or I need some inspiration to trial new foods, Levana's Table will certainly be the first place I look.



5. This is my favorite cookbook ever!!! Everything I've cooked from this book tastes great. With the exception of the short chapter on fancy recipes from her restaurant, the ingredients are very down to earth and not complicated. I love all the personal anecdotes Levana includes. You can just tell this is her passion.

4 comments about Sephardic Flavors: Jewish Cooking of the Mediterranean.

1. Chef, author, restaurateur, and Mediterranean cooking specialist Joyce Goldstein follows her acclaimed Cucina Ebraica: Flavors of the Italian Jewish Kitchen with a study of Mediterranean Jewish cooking. While researching Cucina Ebraica, she immersed herself in Sephardic History. She wondered how the Jews evolved their cuisine, what influences they took from the Moors, the Portuguese, Andalusians, Valencians, Balearic Islanders, Greeks, Ottomans, and Balkans. What were the harmonizations to other communities and the contrasts to the Italian Jewish cuisine she was researching? She answers these questions and more in the book's opening collection of essays (about 22 pages). This is followed by several pages of sample full menus for Shabbat and Jewish holidays and commemorations. For example, there are Leek Fritters for Hanukkah, Mijavyani (a vegetable soup with plums) for Tu B'Shevat, Lentil Soup for Tisha B'Av, or Moussaka di Pesce and Macaroni and Cheese-Thrace Style (using feta and non-elbow Ziti) for Shavuot. If you are wondering how her book compares to DRIZZLE OF HONEY by David Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson, it is her feeling that while DRIZZLE is filled with fascintaing stories and history, her cookbook adds more culinary skills to the execution of recipes. The chapters include ones for Salads and Appetizers; Savory Pastries; Soups; Vegetables and Grains; Fish; Poultry and Meat; and Desserts. In the chapter for Salads and Appetizers, Goldstein writes, that Sephardic cuisine inverts the oil to vinegar ratio (3:1) with which most North Americans are familiar. Sephardic cooking is more tart, so the vinegar ratio is much higher (1:3). My favorite recipes were the Tarator (a cousin to Tzatziki) and Huevos HAMINados, or onion skin eggs, or Jewish eggs (Yahudi Yamurta). The chapter on savory pastries, which are also known as borekas, inchusa, tapada, rondanches, boyos, and filas (to name just a few), includes recipes for Izmir-style Handrajos, or Eggplant and Squash filled borekas. In her chapter on soups, Goldstein tells the reader that it is not a coincidence that the Spanish word for Jewess is the same for bean (judia). She provides recipes for several soups and adafina, or what some Jews may call cholent. My favorites included meatball soup, and a white bean soup. There are 24 recipes in the Vegetables and Grains chapter. Standouts are Turlu, a Turkish Ratatouille; a squash omelet fritada; and pumpkin and prunes, which resembles a Moroccan Jewish style Hilou. The tomato bread pudding was also very unique. A fish dish that is very interesting for the period between Simhat Torah and Hanukkah is Peshkado Avramila, or fish with sour plums or prunes. Goldstein writes that it recalls Abraham's self-circumcision, since Sephardic folklore says that Avraham sat under a plum tree after the procedure. The 22 meat and poultry recipes includes one for Gayna al Orno, a roast chicken with apples and pomegranates; and one for Keftas de Gayna, chicken meatballs with egg and lemons (two of them). The standout is the Rollo me HAMINados is a meatloaf with sweet and sour tomato sauce (uses honey and wine) baked with eggs in the center. The book closes, as do meals, with desserts that include Hanukkah Fritters in a honey lemon glaze; Baklava, Tispishti, Sutlatch, and Zerda ( a rice pudding).



2. Joyce Goldstein author and chef also understands the relationship between culture and food. Her book on Jewish Italian cooking should be read by anyone who likes to read cook books.

   In this book, Goldstein explores Sephardic food, the culinary heritage of Jews of the Middle East. She does not disapoint. The recipes are easy to follow and very tasty. The presentation is excellent and will make your mouth water. What is wonderful about all of Goldstein's work is you can see how Jews have, for centuries, absorbed the recipes of the culture in which they live, adapting them for their own tastes and dietery requirements. My wife and I have had a wonderful time cooking out of this book. The only problem is deciding what to make first.

   A great work.




3. We usually think one excellent dish is worth the price of a cookbook (think of the price you'd pay to eat an excellent dish at a restaurant), and we've made at least 3 or 4 out of this one already. Joyce Goldstein has also really sought out a nice variety of Sephardic cuisines. And the photographs are gorgeous.



4. I bought this as a Christmas present for my wife on a whim as I was browsing the cookbooks. So far she has enjoyed it and even made the meatloaf recipe successfully (with hard-boiled eggs inside) withing the first week of having it. The recipes inside tend to lean more toward the Mediterranean than the Jewish but they are thoughtful and interesting without being too unusual. I'd reccommend it for anyone who want an "off the beaten track" cookbook, and it's cheap, too!